Ruminating about the lost fight, I turned towards the woods and saw therein the white tree. It was not far away, giant, dominating all other trees with white, almost leafless branches.

I put a hand in my pocket and touched the parchment 'meet me at the white tree'. It miraculously survived almost intact. I sighed. Somebody tried to warn me. How comes? Can it be that they knew about Grackak? That he was going to come? Maybe it was not his first visit?

I looked again after Alice, but she was too far away now. Too bad I forgot to ask her if she got more info from the boy that gave me the message. I hesitated another moment, and then I went walking towards the woods. Maybe it makes sense to meet this person after all.

I put my hand instinctively over my burnt face. I will make a great first impression.

“Hi! I'm not a zombie; this is only a temporary haircut, you know...”

Well, it will regenerate; just give it some hours. Important is that I have no broken bones, and all members are functioning… magic in your veins makes it possible.

I would go to town to repair my armour, but… OK, you lose for being hostile to me; you get no money from me, stupid townsfolk!… I walked further towards the woods, and once I judged to be far enough, I got behind some bushes and started to strip. I do have some ointment that I use for minor injuries. It is not much, but it will help speed up my recovery. I could try to beg some low-level healer to heal me, but first, I cannot go into town, and second, if I find one at the town's entry, their low-level heal is for me not much more than this ointment. They don't have enough mana to properly heal me.

Plus, the ointment has a calming and painkiller effect.

So, ointment it is, then I dressed a different armour set. Oh fuck, the repair costs will come… I don't want to think about those now. At least this armour I put on now has some self-repairing spell encased in it. Boots, boots, where are my passing boots? Ah, here they are! Cool!

I sat down and pulled on my new boots. Nice looking fine leather boots. Oh, I love these! OK, only looking at these nice boots made me feel better, ready for a new adventure!

I entered the woods. Hm. Now I have the feeling of being followed. Am I being stalked? I hid in the shadow, and after a while, I saw him. Some NPC kid from town. OK, it could be a curious kid, or somebody might use a kid to spy on me. I sprinted deeper into the woods and lost him in half a minute.

I walk relatively reckless here as this is a chapter 2 forest. No forest is really safe, but there are only a few monsters who could and would attack me in this area. To my knowledge, only the Lynx could be a challenge for me. Dangerous? Well, I should be able to kill him.

The Lynx is a raid's target. One needs a well-organized team of 80+ low-level players to fight it with a high-level battle pet that could tank it. Such a beast can be rented from the town's mayor once the required reputation is achieved. Then they need to be lucky to find the Lynx. However, he gives insane experience; they would probably all level up once done.

I advanced further through the woods, thinking about this and had to stop abruptly.

Certain things should not be said. Not even in mind. The Lynx stood between two trees like a giant cat relaxing in the sun, grinning, his sharp canines like vampire teeth rising out of his mouth, his white fur shining in the sunlight.

A huge long yawn to show me all the splendour of his sharp white teeth.

He can perfectly camouflage himself when he wants; once he is shining so, he wants to be seen. So what do we have here?

>

Uh, oh, level 97! This should not be! How comes? Who thinks of putting a level 97 as a raid target for a bunch of low-level poor souls?

Something went terribly wrong here.

I am very lucky if I get out unharmed from this now. I need to raise some magic traps around me and then try to keep him away with mind shock.

The Lynx watched me for a couple of seconds working traps around, further yawning and then, after stretching his long limbs with claws the size of sickles, he stood up:

“Wow, amazing to watch these exciting tricks you can spell! I would watch the whole day, but we don't have time. Now come. Please follow me. And no mind blasts, please, that causes headaches, and I hate it.”

I stayed petrified. The Lynx talks? And he talks to me? And by the way, did he just make fun of me?

“Come, Hurry up; we don't have time to waste; the area may become dangerous any minute.”

“Ahh. What do you want from me?”

He watched me for a moment as if to assess if I was the right person he was waiting for.

“I guess White Flower is expecting you; you are coming to meet her, aren't you?”

I watched for a second the traps I've built around me. I cannot take them with me. He turned away and disappeared into the woods. I nodded:

"I guess I am."

His head appeared again between some branches.

“You are late for your appointment; I got bored waiting here for you; what are you still waiting for now?”

This does not look like a trick. The question is: do I run away, or do I follow him? Curiosity won. I followed.

Thousands of questions ran through my head while following him. He was advancing fast but, from time to time, stopped to sniff the air.

He suddenly spoke as if to break the tense silence:

“You look a little bit battered; where did you find the wild elephants' herd to get you trampled like this?”

I sighed. Am I now being mocked by an NPC? Was this the second time today?

“Hey, I just had a fight with a particularly nasty gnome.”

“Oh,” he answered as if he knew what I meant and ran further.

He stopped again:

“If you do not like to gamble much, maybe it would be a good idea to drink a heal potion. White Flower will certainly be kind enough to heal you, but you must get in one piece there first. She cannot heal you back from zero. The forest is dangerous now!”

I watched him, surprised. Is he telling me the programmed talk for a chapter 2 player-raid, or does he mean really dangerous for me?

Then I realized I did not hear the same background noise I was used to hearing in this area. Strange noises have replaced the usual birds' songs: growling and rattling. I just wanted to answer when he interrupted me:

“Take your crossbow and be prepared. Stay behind me.”

I barely had the time to do it when 3 big dogs appeared. Each of them was as big as I. These cannot be chapter 2 monsters; they are so huge, so powerful!

I freed the bolt and hit one under its shoulder, but it did not stop its attack. Two of them attacked the Lynx, while the third one came towards me. I shot another bolt and hit him again, but he continued. No time to reload, >, and then >. The mind shock blocked him for a second, and the black tentacles of the magic trap wrapped around his back feet. > again and again. He broke the tentacles of the first trap, which dissipated with a fizz but the second and third resisted and gave me the time to reload my crossbow.

I shot bolt after bolt at him whilst he shook with fury biting the trap's tentacles, growling his anger. It is a fast-loading crossbow, the bolt loading automatically. I can shoot up to twenty bolts like this, and then I need to recharge. As soon as I could, I spelt another > as he almost escaped from the previous ones, then shot again, stepping further away. He managed to free himself but not before I'd hit him with another bolt and readied my katars for the fight, dropping the crossbow.

I said my speed spell:

>

I did not say the speed spell before, as any other spell would have taken me out of it. As the beast jumped at me, I avoided his attack with a step to the left, getting a full splash of blood over my face from his open wounds, even before I planted my katar in its neck.

That was another lucky strike that went deep. The beast stumbled and fell to the side, splashing me with even more blood. Gosh, I just changed into fresh clothes... The strong smell and the iron taste of the blood made me shudder.

The fuck, how did the blood get into my mouth?

I tried to follow up with another strike, but the beast made a sudden movement trying to grasp me with its huge jaws, and I barely avoided that.

It stood again on its feet growling, but life was leaving it fast. Each second, jets of dark liquid splashed from its wounded neck. I must have jabbed an artery.

He made another step, but slower this time, growled, bleeding from his many wounds. I jumped forward, planting my katars in the already dying beast.

I watched the Lynx. One of his opponents lay dead, while the other one was running back in the woods on 3 paws. The Lynx was severely wounded, his white fur full of blood, but he grinned back.

“Well done.”

I wondered:

“What were these?”

“Mrwan’s Doom Dogs. These beasts were tracking me for some time.”

“Mrwan? Is he one of Mephisto’s lieutenants?”

The Lynx answered, setting himself in movement:

“No. A crazy druid. A player. He seems to be allied with Mephisto or colludes with his forces, but I fear that all he wants is to get White Flower.”

I heard some rattling again.

"Snakes. We can outrun them. Come!"

I followed him. Can it be that he evolved? Do mobs level too? Obviously, circumstances and some very high-level player or players did help him evolve. Attacked by high-level beasts and healed by White Flower. White Flower's healing changed the equation. Rinse and repeat the process, and you get evolution. This is how it works in this world, especially if the idiots did increase the challenge with time. So mobs do evolve! Oh, this will be fun!

An interesting person, this White Flower, I am now even more curious to meet her.

Hm. No, this is not enough. You do not level so fast in this world. Especially these high levels. There must have been something else in addition to this. Some catalyst that had propelled him to higher levels.

Running behind him, I watched my dirtied armour unhappily. Now banned from the city, who will wash my clothes? I used to go to an inn in the night or evening, go to bed, and everything would be repaired and washed for the next day for a penny. Now what? Then suddenly, I became aware of what the Lynx had just said.

Did the Lynx just say a player? Allied with Mephisto? How can this be? And such strong pets? 3 of them? Another cheated character? Yeah, clear, when one finds a trick, it becomes a school soon...

“A player?”

He explained:

“Well, interesting, isn't it? This is what he said he is. I spied on him a couple of times.”

Then asked:

“Do you know what did he mean by it? What kind of a player?”

He looked at me with that insidious look as if he knew more. I just grunted, running behind him. He did not push to get an answer. Possibly he heard more than he should have heard. This must be a bug. NPCs should not know about players as players. What can I answer? Better to ignore the question if possible.